Dolmen Press Collection
Dolmen Press Collection
Collection Dates: [c1951-c1987]
Extent: 473 items
Liam Miller was born William Miller in 1924 in Mountrath, Co. Laois. He studied architecture at University College Dublin and travelled to London after 1945 to work on post-war reconstruction projects.
Liam and his wife Josephine (née Browne) returned to Dublin to found the Dolmen Press in 1951. With no formal training in printing, Miller was self-taught in typography and printing as the Dolmen Press developed, working from Glenageary, Baggot Street and Mount Street, Dublin.
The collection contains 473 items and publication catalogues, providing insight into the development of the Dolmen Press, Miller’s career as a printer and the corresponding literary scene in Ireland during the mid twentieth century.
Founded as an outlet to promote Irish publishing, the Dolmen Press heavily featured the work of Irish artists. The scope of the press grew to include prose literature by Irish authors as well as a broad range of critical works about Irish literature and theatre.
The life and works of William Butler Yeats is a recurring theme in a variety of published works.
One of the key items in this collection is Thomas Kinsella's The Táin Bó Cuailnge (1969), an Ulster cycle of heroic tales which Kinsella worked on since 1954. In this folio of 300 pages, Kinsella's translation is accompanied by 130 brush drawings by Louis le Brocquy.
The Dolmen Press also commissioned artwork by Tate Adams and Leonard Baskin which is present in this collection.
The collection includes fine printed editions of works on Irish literature and theatre.
The Irish Literary Theatre, 1899-1901 (Hogan, Robert Goode; Kilroy, James. 1975_
The art of the amateur, 1916-1920 (Hogan, Robert Goode ; Burnham, Richard. 1984)
The 2001 book The Dolmen Press : a celebration by Maurice Harmon and Jack Coughlan is available to borrow from the Cregan library and includes a commemorative collection of essays and interviews edited by the poet Maurice Harmon as well as print illustrations.
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